from History Books  pg 487-524

or Contributed by others

HARTSHORN, Isaac Wright, is a son of Samuel HARTSHORN and Samuel was born at Amherst, Mass., in June 1772, and he was a blacksmith.  He married Sarah GENUNG, in 1798; Sarah was born April 1781 in Newark, NJ.  In 1817 they came to Barrington, Yates County, NY and five years later they moved to Jerusalem, settling on lot 68.  Samuel died May 6, 1854, and his wife July 13, 1862.  Their children were Hiley, who was born November 23, 1799, married Hosea WILLIAMS of Exeter NY.  She died November 26, 1879 and he died November 19, 1851 in Jerusalem.  Betsey, born March 12, 1802, married Robert BROWN, and moved to Dresden where he died October 1850, and she died December 18, 1873.  Abigail, born May 1, 1804 married Azor BARRETT, he died December 14, 1871, and she died December 18, 1873; William W., born September 6, 1806, married Mary THOMAS and moved to Michigan; he died May 3, 1868; his widow still resides there.  Sybil, born July 29, 1811, died May 25, 1873.  James H., born January 17, 1814, married Emily WILLIAMS; he died July 18, 1856; she died July 8, 1854.  Malissa, the youngest died in infancy. 

Isaac Wright, the subject of this sketch, was born in Exeter, Otsego county, NY, March 1, 1809.  He was educated at the common schools of that time, and when he was seventeen years of age he began teaching and kept at it during the winter for a number of years, working on the farm in the summer; and he also became a civil engineer, but he always lived upon the farm, and by close application to business, good judgment, strict economy, and ceaseless industry, he was known as one of the most successful farmers of Yates County. In politics he was known as a reformer, always voting for the party that he thought was for reformation; he was a strong Prohibitionist, and also a great friend and supporter of the cause of anti-slavery, and made a trip through the South with the late William Lloyd GARRISON, when the friends of this cause were persecuted by the press and in the pulpit; but Mr. HARTSHORN lived to see the grand cause succeed.  He was not a member of any religious denomination, but he always recognized that there was a supreme Being, and tried to live so that his actions would warrant and deserve the respect and esteem of his fellow-men. 

Mr. HARTSHORN married first, Sarah, daughter of Ashbel BEERS in 1849, and she died in April 1853, without issue.    He married, second, Sarah, daughter of Amzi BRUEN, December 31, 1857, and by this union there was one child, Wendell Phillips HARTSHORN, born October 19, 1866.  Mr. HARTSHORN died March 18, 1888, much respected by all who knew him.  His widow still resides upon the old homestead, and their son, Wendell Phillips, resides in Penn Yan.  He spent one ear at Oberline College and then graduated at the Albany Business College, at Albany, NY and is now reading law with J. H. BUTLER, and has also opened a real estate and broker’s office in the Post office block, and it is through his liberality that we are enabled to insert in this work a fine likeness of Isaac Wright HARTSHORN.